Milton's depiction of Satan is really against the established western tradition in many ways...
For instance, in Homer's The Odyssey, someone as great as Achilles would say,
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.
But in a similar situation in
Paradise Lost, Satan says,
we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
If resolution, perseverance and a heart for liberty are some of the most herioc characters desired in our human world, then in that, Milton's Satan is even more heroic than Achilles...
[update: edited the line form for Milton's poem]
For instance, in Homer's The Odyssey, someone as great as Achilles would say,
But in a similar situation in Paradise Lost, Satan says, If resolution, perseverance and a heart for liberty are some of the most herioc characters desired in our human world, then in that, Milton's Satan is even more heroic than Achilles...[update: edited the line form for Milton's poem]